Poetry: A form of climate activism

 Activism - Definition: ‘a policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change’

Being an activist can also be achieved in many ways, both interacting with our world itself and the people within it to prompt them to further educate themselves and inspire them to take action towards putting an end to the climate crisis. Various artistic and creative mediums have been used as a means of climate change activism for numerous years- we have seen breathtaking art installments, books, and many other creatively inclined means of activism to share one's message with the world. One beautiful art form that perfectly captures the harrowing feelings surrounding the warming of our planet is poetry, with one of its many benefits being its ability to connect and engage both readers and writers in the discourse surrounding topics of interest. In this case, the topic of interest being climate change.

I encourage you to take the time to dive into a notable piece poetry that very subtly calls attention to climate change, analyze it with me, and share your interpretations. I found the poem that I discuss in this blog are featured within the book of poetry titled 'Here: Poems for the Planet’ which was compiled and edited by Elizabeth J. Coleman, Coleman has received various prizes for her poetry and her selections from varying poets throughout the book do not disappoint either. I hope that by sharing this poem and providing my own brief analysis I might provoking some to engage with more poetry centered around the climate crisis.

The first poem that caught my eye within the book was a poem written for a Detriot, titled ‘There Are Birds Here.’ The author Jamaal May grew up in Detriot, and has since published numerous books of poetry and has served as a poetry teacher in Detriot public schools. I personally found this to be a wonderful piece of writing that has many important facets, all of which I wish could discuss in a singular blog post. The most impactful point in the poem for me are the last three lines which read “how lovely the ruins, how ruined the lovely children must be in that birdless city.” The image the end of the poem provides, is of a city in distress, so afflicted that birds fail to grace the skies. This poem drives one to think and truly ponder the author's implications with each line. I am inclined to think about some important statistics that were brought to light upon reading John Vaillant’s Fire Weather when reading this piece, and the vast african american and latinx individuals that deal with living in areas that are already multiple degrees hotter than their slightly wealthier neighbors. The even more unfortunate reality is that these temperatures will only rise, and all human beings will be impacted. 

May states people refer to the birds in the poem as metaphors, and many different interpretations can be drawn from this. One interpretation that I have come to is those citizens of Detroit are in fact the birds he speaks of in the poem. “What I was trying to say…those birds were metaphors for what is trapped between buildings.” Birds are brittle creatures, like us humans and are often used as a symbol to display fragility. Climate change makes us as a species fragile, it makes our planet fragile, and our wildlife. All in all, each and every being on the earth today is a bird trapped between buildings they cannot escape from. Those buildings being the impacts of climate change which will only increase in severity as time passes and impact the most vulnerable communities first. There are many thoughts and questions to raise upon further analyzing this poem, and I am looking forward to reading other interpretations of this text.